Sherman: Hal has yet to okay expanding payroll; only interested in one-year deals for pitching

ViaJoelSherman, Hal Steinbrenner has yet to approve an expanded payroll, and at the moment the team is only interested in signing a pitcher to a one-year contract. That includes Edwin Jackson, who I don’t think will take a one-year “pillow” contract given the pitching depth in next year’s free agent class. Right now is basically the only time he’ll ever be the best pitcher on the market.

This is great as far as I’m concerned, a one-year deal is the way to go given my affinity for Cole Hamels. I suspect the expanded payroll scenario works on a case-by-case basis, meaning they’ll add money for this guy at this price, another guy at another price, etc. They’re not going to sign someone like Jackson, Hiroki Kuroda, or Roy Oswalt without adding significant dollars, so expanding the budget is basically a must if they want to augment the starting staff.